Dead Pool 17th May 2015

Points!!! Points have  been scored!!! Woo!!! Well done to Sylvia, Kaz and Stu, all guessing that B.B. King would play his last riff this year. But extra props to Sylvia who had him as her Cert. Well done all of you!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Elizabeth Wilson, 94, American actress (The Birds, The Graduate, 9 to 5), Tony Award winner (1972).
• Isobel Varley, 77, British tattooed woman, world’s most tattooed senior, Alzheimer’s disease.
• Olympe Amaury, 113, French supercentenarian, nation’s oldest person.
• B.B. King, 89, American Hall of Fame blues guitarist, singer and songwriter (“The Thrill Is Gone“), complications from diabetes.

In Other News

Rob Ford, the former Toronto mayor, has undergone surgery to remove a cancerous tumour in his abdomen. Doctors removed the growth in an intensive operation that kept him under anaesthesia for about 10 hours, Ford’s chief of staff said. “There were no new growths, the cancer had not spread beyond what they were already aware of, and they were able to remove all the existing growths without causing damage to any internal structures.” Ford’s surgery comes after several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation that he said had shrunk his tumour to an operable size. He has said he could be out of commission for four months. Ford, whose admitted drug and alcohol abuse and outrageous behaviour earned him international notoriety, was forced out of his mayoral re-election bid in September 2014 when doctors discovered his rare, aggressive malignant liposarcoma. He ran successfully for his old city council seat instead.

As Mad Max: Fury Road debuts across the globe, actor Tom Hardy has opened up about his struggle with drugs. Hardy spoke about his addictions to both alcohol and drugs, stating: “I would have sold my mother for a rock of crack.” Alas the actor has now been clean and sober since 2003 and claims that it was a very clear statement that got him back to a better place. But there is every chance of a remission, amirite?

The man once dubbed the world’s fattest has had between three and four stone (22 to 27kg) of skin removed. Paul Mason, 54, from Ipswich, used to weigh 70 stone (440kg) but has lost about 45 stone (285kg). He is currently in New York recuperating after a nine-hour operation to remove his loose skin. Asked by BBC Radio Suffolk about the removal of so much tissue, he said: “I just think ‘good riddance’.” About half of the skin removed was from Mr Mason’s right leg with further significant surgery to what he described as his “apron”, which covered his midriff. Mr Mason, who used to have £75-worth of takeaways and chocolate delivered to his door daily, had the operation thanks to a donation of time by Dr Jennifer Capla.

U2’s latest world tour got off to an unsteady start in Vancouver on Thursday night, when lead guitarist The Edge fell off the edge of the stage. The guitarist fell during the last song of the night, which the rest of his caring bandmates continued to play while he was helped up by security guards. The Edge later posted on Instagram a picture of his grazed and cut right arm, with the message: “Didn’t see the edge, I’m OK!!” Twat!

And finally, a family was left waiting in torrential rain at their mother’s graveside after an “amazing coincidence” saw fellow mourners follow the wrong hearse for nine miles. A group of relatives lost the right hearse, belonging to 71-year-old Mair Howard, after getting stuck in traffic at a roundabout and becoming separated from the rest of the cortege. The three cars, containing Mrs Howard’s nephews and pall-bearers, proceeded to trail the wrong coffin along the A50 in Wales for nine miles, only realising their mistake when family members waiting at the graveside called to ask where they were. Mrs Howard’ son Gareth said his mother would have found the mix-up amusing. He said: “It was, of course, a sad occasion but despite getting soaking wet everyone had a good laugh – and I know Mam would have as well.”

On This Day

• 1536 – The annulment of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s marriage.
• 1792 – The New York Stock Exchange is formed under the Buttonwood Agreement.
• 1902 – Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.
• 1915 – The last British Liberal Party government (led by Herbert Henry Asquith) falls.
• 1984 – Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”, sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture.
• 1990 – The General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.
• 2004 – The first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. are performed in the state of Massachusetts.

Deaths

• 1886 – John Deere, American blacksmith and businessman, founded the Deere & Company (b. 1804)
• 2012 – Donna Summer, American singer-songwriter (b. 1948)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Bono (55), Linda Evangelista (50), Burt Bacharach (87), Emilio Estevez (53), Gabriel Byrne (65), Jason Biggs (37), Stephen Baldwin (49), Steve Winwood (67), Tony Hawk (47), Ving Rhames (56), Harvey Keitel (76), Stevie Wonder (65), Stephen Colbert (51), Robert Pattinson (29), Dennis Rodman (54), George Lucas (71), Tim Roth (54), Cate Blanchett (46), Natalie Appleton (42), Mark Zuckerberg (31), Zara Phillips (34), Pierce Brosnan (62), Debra Winger (60), Janet Jackson (49), Megan Fox (29) and George Clooney (54).

Next Week peeps!